


Invited to Eat

by dahtwitchi



Series: Iruka the Unwilling Babysitter [3]
Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Awkwardness, Emotional Baggage, Emotions, F/M, Gen, Iruka didn't ask for this, Post-Episode 500 (Naruto), References to Depression, Relationship Discussions, Relationship Issues, Umino Iruka-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-19 19:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20662484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahtwitchi/pseuds/dahtwitchi
Summary: Between an invitation to ramen, and an invitation for tea, Iruka finally delve deeper into Naruto's problems, and he hears more about the relationship with Hinata than he ever thought he would.He just wish he could help. So very much.Some messes are too big for the friendly ear to solve, though.





	1. Invited to Ramen

"I should be happy..." Naruto mumbled down into his ramen. He was poking at them as listlessly as he seemed to do a lot of things lately, and it made Iruka worry immensely. Sharing a look with the stall owner he made an awkward sound he hoped sounded at least a little sympathetic and caring. To be honest he was so out of his depth, he had no clue what to do.

"I mean-" Naruto gestured, making a small wave with his chopsticks rather than his usual full arm waving around "-I just had a baby girl. And I already have a wonderful boy. And a beautiful wife that just... is so _devoted_ and caring," Naruto said, turning to look at Iruka.

Iruka couldn't help but shrink back from the pain and helplessness he could see there. Heart clenching, he wished he knew what to do.

When Naruto had asked to go for ramen, just the two of them like old times, he had been ecstatic. It was rare to meet up alone now that Naruto had passed all the academic hurdles Iruka could help with, now that he had a family, now that he was so close to inheriting the hat. Kakashi had even indirectly asked Iruka to maybe push Naruto a little to decide on when that was to happen. In fact, Kakashi had not-asked him to communicate with Naruto on a myriad of things lately, it was getting annoying. As if Iruka was some sort of Naruto-whisperer.

Ok, ok, he could admit he was flattered. Both at the attention and the way it acknowledged him as a known important person to Naruto. It all made him truly feel like he was family, like the father figure he had been _chosen_ as. It still made him giddy, remembering that very moment he had been asked about the wedding-

"I guess I'm just tired," Naruto sighed, "that's normal with children, I mean they _are_ wonderful. All the others talk about being tired, after all, and we got two now. And there is so much work at the tower, and Hinata _is_ so wonderful and supportive. It's all I ever dreamt of, and I finally have it."

Right, Iruka had been lost in his thoughts while someone spilled their feelings all over him, again. Naruto turned back to stare at his ramen, and Iruka felt despair over his own lack of being helpful. 

Naruto sounded too much as if he told himself what he felt, rather than truly experiencing them. He hadn't even tried to smile when mentioning the supposed good things in his life. 

"You have a lot of things going on now," he tried, going for reassuring but ending up more worried.

"Yeah…"

"I mean, a family! That's a lot, trying to figure out how it works, what parents do, when you didn't-" - have one yourself, Iruka ended the sentence in his head. Shit. Naruto was hunching further over his bowl, and Iruka really needed to stop projecting his own fumbling distress about trying to be a family member with two generations under him. At least he had had many years of love and devotion from his parents, while Naruto had had… Iruka, who had never _actually_ been a parent Naruto. Who had been far too slow to accept Naruto into his life, come in far too late to show how to care for a small child or care for your family. 

Why did he continue ending up talking family and relationships with all these kids? He wasn't the right person, they should ask someone who _knew_, not _Iruka_. He was just their once upon a time Academy teacher, not old enough to be their actual father and most certainly failed completely to have a relationship of his own. And yet, to him they let out their woes and worries. It was awkward, he had no training for this, everything became too personal and he had to struggle with himself to not drown in his own issues on the subjects every time. He'd have liked to live happily in denial about his own thoughts on friends and family, thank you very much. 

Naruto was the important thing here. Naruto and his listless lack of intensity. Naruto who never really lit up talking about his family. Or about anything, lately. It had been coming for a long time, but Himawari seemed to have been the last straw. Before her birth, there had been a spark, and Iruka had hoped to see a change for the better, but, no.

"How… how are you?" He all but whispered, "How are you _really_?"

Naruto tensed, huddling down over his half eaten bowl. 

Iruka couldn’t stand the silence, couldn’t stop himself from awkward rambling, "I mean, you don't have to hide- anyone could see you got a lot to- I can see…" he trailed off as Naruto looked up with a stiff smile. There was too much teeth and too little cheer.

"Aw, Iruka, you don’t have to worry about me!" He said, slapping Iruka's shoulder as he stood up. "As you said, there is a lot going on, it's fine being a bit tired now and again, right? I mean, this is nothing to what I've managed before!"

"But-" 

"Need to go, promised Hinata…" he mumbled as he disappeared through the curtains.

Iruka looked after him. Naruto had lied, and the lie hurt. The insincere smile hurt. The horrible pretend bustling hurt. Even the shoulder slap had hurt, both in how uncharacteristic it was, and how Naruto hadn't kept control over his strength.

Iruka looked down, looked at Naruto's bowl, at the last fish cake and broth. With a hard swallow, he glanced up at Teuchi. He too glanced at the bowl with worry.

"Has he been by much, lately?" Iruka asked tentatively. 

"No, this is the first time in two weeks," the man shook his head in shock, unable to look away from the uncanny sight of ramen leftovers after Naruto. 

"Has he ever left…" Iruka stared at the bowl, too. Rather that, than looking at Teuchi and have to share some sort of emotional distress.

"...no."

With a wince, Iruka knew he really couldn't ignore this any longer. He'd try to broach the subject with Hinata. Next week, next week she had him invited for tea. He'd try to talk to her then.


	2. Invited for Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Never will Iruka ever forget the heights his awkward embarrassment reached that afternoon.

Tea with Hinata was a habit Iruka had come to treasure from the very first time. If he was honest, he had been close to something like swooning when she had insisted Naruto’s father come over to visit her for tea. He had been asking if there was anything he could do for her when Naruto was off for missions during her first pregnancy, and the result had been more or less regular tea together at least a couple of times a month.

He contemplated how well motherhood suited her, barely listening to her retelling Boruto’s escapades in the market this morning and definitely pushing the need to discuss Naruto to the back of his head. Seeing he in full mom mode was far preferable. It was such a cliche, but comparing the timid little girl who always struggled, always forced herself into becoming a shinobi, this Hinata was relaxed and confident. Having kids had given her the meaning in life she hadn’t found before. She was the kind of parent he’d love to deal with as a teacher. 

She was a parent he very well might actually end up dealing with as a teacher. 

Pausing the cup halfway to his mouth, he was struck with the fact _Naruto_ might be a parent of a kid he taught. He might be Boruto’s teacher.

The thought was close to giving him vertigo, especially the part where Naruto resembled the kind of parent he’d dread having to deal with.

“Please, your tea will grow cold. Something has been bothering you from the moment you came, and even more so when the children fell asleep,” Hinata pushed, gentle as always, but with a hint of tolerating no nonsense. What a shinobi she’d have been if she had found this kind of strength early on.

“...it’s…” he took a sip, grimacing as the tea was indeed getting lukewarm, “Naruto.”

They stared at each other, Iruka feeling his bravery disappear as Hinata’s self confident air seemed to drain away. She was suddenly brushing crumbs together, arranging the spoon and empty cup to be ready for washing up. 

“Naruto,” he cleared his throat, he had to do this, had to, “we went for ramen the other day, you know, and when he talked about you…” he trailed off as she was staring intently at him. Was she ready to cry? Oh dear whatever powers may be, Iruka wanted to comfort her as if for a practical exam, but also back away slowly to flee the house as he could feel her gather strength for what, he didn’t know.

“Is he leaving me?” she asked in a tight voice, hands clenching into trembling fists, “does he want to leave me?”

“Does he- what? That- uhm, I, no?” completely blindsided, this fearful but determined Hinata was now leaning over the table, with white, white eyes staring at him. Was Naruto’s depressed behaviour because of his relationship not working out? It was a new and distressful angle he hadn’t even considered before. He really should have thought of that, shouldn’t he? “He didn’t actually tell me anything! I don’t know, I just, he hasn’t been himself, I thought maybe you’d know…”

“...oh,” she breathed out, her fists falling open again. The resolute drive she had had, asking the question, was gone as fast as it had showed up.

One day, Iruka’s life might not consist of endless uncomfortable silences. One day.

“...it’s… it’s not going, uhm, well, then, between you… two…?” he asked, chanting in his head how he would never ever want to be in a relationship, he was having enough relationship talks not having one of his own.

“He… hasn’t been very… interested,” Hinata said, eyes on the table cloth and hands folded in her lap.

New, terrible canyons were opening for Iruka.

“Not very… interested?”

“I… I have loved him forever, I know he never really… saw me, before. I have never expected him to be so deeply in love with him as I am,” she began, reaching for words and frowning, “It’s enough for me that we are a family, to be his wife, to have our children, I couldn’t ask for more,” she continued, more certain.

Iruka, with no clue where she was going, felt dread rise, alongside with the by now familiar annoyance about all these girls clinging to their childhood sweetheart boys. 

“Ok,” he croaked.

“But I’d have thought he’d be more, well, _interested_” she said primly, “he doesn’t really treat me differently from before we were together, and he doesn’t really, you know, want to, _do things_,” she stared sternly at the flower arrangement between them. Iruka did, too, wondering if his cheeks were turning as red as hers.

“Oh.”

“Obviously it does _happen_, we have two children after all, but it’s not much more than that. I can’t help but wonder if he, if he is, if he is getting something… on the side,” she stopped abruptly, leaving a top three contender level awkward silence.

“...if Naruto has…” Iruka mumbled weakly, trying to fit his head around the thought. 

“I- I’m sorry,” Hinata let out a shrill laugh, “I don’t mean to- He is wonderful, really. Devoted. I don’t doubt he loves us. He just isn’t very… Romantic. Or enthusiastic, in, uhm, other areas. It eats away a bit on a woman’s self confidence, when her husband isn’t finding her very... If you listen to anyone, you’d think I’d be attractive...“

Iruka would have liked to never have registered Hinata’s glance down her own body and the way she habitually adjusted her chest.

“If it had been only lately, I’ve always heard how when you’ve had children, some men stop… But there is no real difference, he never initiate, never push, but he has always been very politely attentive when-” she looked up at Iruka, and to his everlasting thankfulness to whoever above or below who had listened, seemed to realise what she was telling who. He could only imagine the red faced embarrassment verging on panic that surely showed in his face.

He really, really tried, but couldn’t for the life of him come up with anything to say. His mind felt filled with static, no parallels ran to his own life, just sheer horror of the new heights to which he was being confided in by former students. About his practically adopted son, to boot. There was nothing he could do with this information.

“Hn…” he murmured.

The awkward silence easily topped any other he had experienced.

Hinata broke first.

“I’m so sorry,” she bowed her head over her lap, “Please forget what I said, I never imagined finally talking about this would leave me rambling.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Iruka hastily, desperately assured her, willing the whole conversation to be over and done and forgotten. Hiding in the disgustingly cold tea, he found the topic of Naruto’s listless behaviour not as hard to bring up anymore. 

“I meant, I meant, Naruto haven’t been as cheerful lately, I was wondering if he seemed tired, if he seem his usual self at home? I don’t see much of him, and he always seem buried in work.”

Hinata was obviously eager to leave the whole marriage relations topic behind as well, and dove straight into the topic. Both were stilted, and their red cheeks took time to fade, but the progression of admitting to each other just how much of a shadow of himself Naruto had become, made it easy to forget the embarrassment for the duration.

After a heavy silence over a second, fresh cup of tea, after the children had woken up and they had played, after he left the Uzumaki household. After, when he was finally alone, Iruka could only come to the conclusion that Naruto needed help. Hinata had only agreed, could attest to the same lack of being able to handle the children, lacking appetite, and an unheard of dullness to his character. It hurt to hear her recite the amount of times she had seen him stand around and just stare at Himawari, no happiness, no warmth for his child, sometimes not even reacting as she began to scream even as he was right beside the cot.

Iruka would need to talk to the healers. He didn’t know too much about depression, but he had assured Hinata he’d look up how to proceed. She had the children to worry about, and trying to support Naruto as well as she could at home. This part was the least Iruka could do, he just hoped it’d give him any kind of direction as to how to help Naruto. 

Whether Naruto would accept any help was something he'd rather worry about later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this fic. A complete mess in every way. Beta what is a Beta this series is too messy anyway. Feel free to point out grave mistakes to this non native English speaker.
> 
> Also.
> 
> Naruto needs a hug or a thousand.  
In fact.  
Everyone needs a hug.

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another awkward piece of a fic. No beta, bear with me and my writing adventures in a foreign language ^^;


End file.
